Transmission speeds of 512 Gbit/s over a single optical fibre wavelength channel were clocked, which corresponds to a usable bit rate of 400 Gbit/s and equates to the simultaneous transmission of 77 music CDs.

The maximum bit rate in backbone networks today is currently 100 Gbit/s.

Although transmission speeds have been higher in a laboratory setting, this record was achieved in optical network on a route of 734 kilometres from Berlin to Hanover and back.

The previous world record was set by the at the end of last year, where researchers transferred data at a rate of 186 Gbit/s, less than half the rate achieved by Deutsche Telekom's latest results.

Thanks to this latest development, the researchers now claim that if all 48 channels of an optical fibre were used, throughput of up to 24.6 Tbit/s could be attained, which equates to 3,696 CDs being transferred at the same time.